My Personal Kanban Evolution

I don't usually do this type of post on my blog but I have been toying with the idea of bringing it here for long while.

Then I decided that everyone can benefit from some organization in his or her life, right?

Ever since reading about Personal Kanban a few months back I have been hooked.
Well okay some would say I have been obsessed. I don't know why, but maybe I just saw it at the right time in my life but ever since reading about it my life has changed for the better. As I said on Twitter a few weeks back, I have even been known to Kanban my dinner menu.

Before Kanban, I was all over the place. Always trying to do 25 things at once and never quite completing any of tasks on my to do list. I read the first post in the series and decided this looks like something I could do that would help me out, so I decided to give it a shot. I started trying Personal Kanban solely for work purposes, it then spilled over into every aspect of my life.

So today I present to you my Personal Kanban Evolution.

Kanban is great because you don't need anything fancy to get going with it. My first Kanban was on poster board w/ Post-it notes in my office.

I even added arrows so I got off track with my tasks, I knew right where to pick up again. After working w/ this first primitive Kanban board and seeing how successful it was right out of the gate, I knew this was for me.

I then started to Kanban even when I didn't have room on my poster board.

Right on top of my desk I started to clear out items that needed to be done right away and I got tired of looking at on my board. Guess what? It worked.

And it worked really well. I was becoming decidedly more productive.

So much so I thought, hey I wonder if this Kanban will work in other parts of my life? I then started a Personal Kanban board for my 12-year-old daughter's confirmation project that she was dragging her feet on.

Guess what? That Kanban board is now completed, and she was done with everything way ahead of schedule. She is now implementing Personal Kanban for her school work. Especially when she has a big project due. Now that she's on the school newspaper she's mentioned Personal Kanban will come in handy to get her articles in by the deadline.

A chip off the old block huh?

So if it works for me and works for a 12-year-old, I also began to think that maybe it would work for my husband and I as we prepare to get our house ready to put on the market this upcoming February, so we made this Kanban for our "home jobs".

So when my husband and I began to talk about what we had to get done to meet that deadline, we were both daunted by the list before us. We both said to each other, "There is no way we are going to get all this done by February." After just one weekend of working on the tasks, here is the progress we made:

I am happy to say we have even more tasks moved over to the working and completed swim lanes since this photograph was taken. Even my husband is impressed by our productivity so far.

As I started out saying in the beginning of this post, I started Personal Kanban for work purposes. I can't believe how it has improved my productivity. Now I am using both a white board and the agilezen website for work. I can't sing the praises of agilezen enough.

I love the fact that I can collaborate on work projects. It's a been a fantastic tool and has taken my productivity to even a higher level. Not only am also using the agilezen site for work but I also use it for my blog. It's a great place to put my ideas and see them come to life and over to the completed swim lane.




For my personal tasks, I have been using another website LeanKit: Kanban. It seems to be working out very nicely in that capacity for me. Before I start my workday, or any day for that matter, I look at this page on my computer.

Now you can see what I mean when I say there is no part of my life, both personally and professionally, that I haven't used Personal Kanban successfully.

Well there was one part of my life where I hadn't used Personal Kanban.....that is until the start of the new school year, enter Kanban in the classroom.

While I was preparing this summer for my up coming school year, I wanted to do something to help my students with their end of the year testing results. I needed something that would boost their learning while making it fun and achievable, then it dawned on me....why not use Personal Kanban in the classroom? Here's the first try at the classroom board:

After a lot of conversations and tweaking of the board I ended up starting the year with this hanging on my wall:



Which led to the first completed classroom Personal Kanban board:



Which then turned not only to a Personal Kanban board on my classroom wall but a individual Personal Kanban for each student at the end of the week so that they could share their achievement with their parents.

There has been nothing like watching the students add to the classroom Kanban board when they complete their tasks and earn that "awesome" sticker when they have completed all the tasks for the week. They are now looking forward to placing their post it note on the board with each task.

So far we have had 100% success, even though it's very early on, I am quite confident this will help out with the success rate at the end of the year testing, therefore ensuring each child is even more prepared to enter into kindergarten.

I am pretty sure this is probably the most primitive version of Personal Kanban that you can get, I don't use or know all the technical terms, and these are not the most complicated of boards that you will see. In fact, these are probably some of the most simplistic boards you will find.

However, this is what has worked for me. This simplest of tools, has taken me to a whole new level both professionally, and in my private life. To me there is nothing like the feeling of moving that WIP task over to the completed swim lane, and looking back on a day's work and seeing just how much I have accomplished with this tool called Personal Kanban.

Yes it's true, I have been known to Kanban my dinner menu.

King of Pain

For the first time in my life I spent almost the whole day crying. I cried all the way home from my parents home yesterday. 2 1/2 hours worth of tears streaming down my face nonstop. I was on the couch all night last night crying. My world has been turned upside down, literally. I am trying to put a plan of attack in motion for dealing with everything that has been throw at me. I feel a like I am juggler who is trying to keep 10 balls in the air all at once.

Now that I know for sure that my Dad does indeed have cancer and what the next few months hold in store for him, treatment wise, I need to make some decisions. His treatment will be lengthy and very involved. My parents live in a different state from where I do. My Mom will not be able to handle all of this on her own. I will need to be there as much as possible for my Dad and my Mom. This is where the 10 balls come into play. How do I keep my own family here going? Juggle my 2+ jobs, my daughter's swimming schedule, and my home? Something is going to have to give.

I'm not 100% sure yet but I believe I'm going to have to quit a job. It will be very hard to walk away from the job I am choosing to let go of particularly in the middle of the year. However, I have made a vow with myself a long time ago that where my family is concerned I want to have no regrets. I want to make sure I am there for my family no matter what. I only have one family, jobs will come and go. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.
I consider myself very lucky that I can afford to let a job go, that I have a husband who is there encourage me and to support my decisions.
My daughter is almost 13 now. She and my husband will be able to handle things here at home while I am gone during the week. I know it will take some creative scheduling to make sure that either my husband or myself is here to continue getting her to practice daily, but we will do it one way or another. We have made that commitment.

I am scared for what the future holds. I am scared that I might make a wrong decision. I am scared that I will not be strong enough to handle all of this. I am scared that I will let my family down. I am scared.period. However, I think my Dad is scared more than I am and I need to make sure that he knows he is not alone and that we get through all of this together.



One thing I realize is that I have an absolutely incredible network of friends. While yesterday was one of the toughest days of my life, I simply cannot thank my friends enough. The phone calls, text messages, emails, thoughts and prayers from all you did not go unnoticed. I am very blessed and so thankful for all of your support, love and friendship. I can only hope that I am half the friend to all of you that you have all been to me.

WW ~ #27

Photograph courtesy of Hitting 50




I am avoiding reality.
As long as I can do it I will continue to do so.

I have no answers

Please note: This blog post is purely venting. If you do not wish to read my venting I suggest you read no further. I am NOT writing this for pity. If you know me you know that pity is not what I am about. I am writing this purely for my own venting. While I don't usually use this platform for my venting, I need to let some things go and this is after all my blog, and the one place I can play by my rules.

After my Dad was cleared of his cancer almost 2 weeks ago, I received the news that his colonoscopy revealed yesterday that he has a tumor. The doctor who did the colonoscopy is almost positive it's cancer. So much so that they have set up many tests over the next three days in preparation for his initial visit to the oncologist next Thursday.

I can't quite put my finger on it but this has hit me so much harder than the previous bout he just came through with flying colors. I have many questions, much anger, and no answers and no sight in end for my anger.

I am furious. I am devastated. I am upset. I am lost. I feel broken and I don't know how to fix myself. Why would all our prayers be answered only to have them taken away so quickly?
What is left of my faith is on thin ice. Let me provide some religious background: I am a practicing Catholic. I have for the most part attended church every Sunday since I was born. I consider myself to be a good faith abiding Catholic. I even taught CCD at my church for almost 10 years. We have been very conscious of not missing a Sunday Mass over the past year because of my daughter getting confirmed later this fall. For the first time in my life I'm extremely tempted to drop her off at Mass on Sunday and either go home or wait there in the car. I have no clue how I am going to walk through those doors of my church on Sunday. As some of you might already know I have had recently some issues with my church to begin with and this is just the icing on the cake for me. As I told one of my friends in an email earlier this morning, I have yet to say a prayer. I'm afraid to.

I am no different than any one of you. We all have our responsibilities, we all have our problems to deal with, and we all have challenges that have to tackle. I am a person who realizes that no matter how bad things are for myself that there are others who have it far worse than myself.
One of my favorite quotes is "God never gives you more than he knows you can handle." I have lived my life believing that. My Mom would say that all the time when I was growing up. I really believed that. Until yesterday. I just feel like no matter where I turn, in which direction, there is a brick wall and the bricks keep getting higher and I have no way to get out.

I helped my Dad and my family get through this the first time and I am committed to doing it again this time, I just have no clue how. I honestly don't know how I can be strong enough to do this all again. Seeing my Dad go through this before and NOT being there to see him and check on him every day was very difficult. He was depressed and was not so willing to fight. I had to fight with him to get him to do what the doctors wanted. I had to fight with him to get him to go to Sloan-Kettering, everything was a fight. A second time for him? Why a second time?

I believe every thing that happens has a lesson tied to it. I have no clue what the lesson is in this. I have no clue what it is I'm supposed to learn from this. I have no clue how to deal with all of this. I'm just clueless.

Been a long time

It's been a long time since I have posted here or anywhere. I have had a tough time adjusting to balancing being a Mom, wife, and two plus jobs. My down time has gone...well....down. I fully intended to blog this weekend but when I had time to sit down and relax, I did just that. Sat down and relaxed and couldn't bring myself to do it. I guess that means I just wasn't ready to put down on my blog what was going on and how I was feeling.

I have glided into the new school year, this will be my last year in the classroom. There have been many changes on my horizon and I have decided, however hard the decision was to walk away. I love being in the classroom, I love my kids. However I have a child who entered Junior High this year and is inching closer to her college education which we need to step up our saving for. I have decided to go 100% next summer into my marketing job. I have gone into the this school year full of new ideas. I have set up a classroom twitter account for my parents to follow. I wasn't sure how this was going to go over, but it has been embraced by the parents and very well received. All but one of my parents have signed up for twitter just for the classroom follow. They have been interacting with me through the account and have loved the live tweeting with the photos, they can see their child in action and see what we are doing in the classroom. It has been very exciting to watch unfold. I believe it is the way of the future in the classroom. Last year I used email and I just wasn't happy with how it flowed. Twitter seems to be working out nicely so far.

I love the marketing job, it is so many responsibilities in one job. There are so many pros to this job that they far out weigh the cons. I love being able to work in my pj's if I so desire. I love waking up putting my tasks in order and then receiving an email or phone call that switches it all up and gives me new tasks to tackle. That equals never a dull moment with the work. I love the commute, down about 20 steps to my home office. I love my boss. I love being on the ground floor of a start up company. I love the flexibility. I love the design aspect of the job. I love working on the computer. I love that one week I could work 40 hours and the next only 10. In the end it all balances out with the hours. I love that if I have something to tend to during the day, I can start work at 7pm at night. Honestly there really isn't anything I don't like about the job. THAT fact alone to me is amazing. I know I'm very lucky to be able to say that. I have had many jobs that I have HATED.

As many of my readers know my Father was diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer a few months ago. Two weeks ago the doctor from Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center called to tell me that the original diagnoses was wrong. His cancer was in fact benign.

*pause*

*pause*

Excuse me could you repeat that?

Benign?

WOW.JUST.WOW.

We were floored. We were ecstatic. If you think prayers don't work, you are wrong. Miracles do happen. I can't begin to tell you how happy WE all were with that news. I am so glad we went to Sloan-Kettering. Not only because of what they found, but because from the very first phone call I placed to them, they were top notch, went above and beyond what I expected any Cancer Center should have done for their patients. From the first receptionist I talked to on the phone to the greeter at the front desk, to the nurses, to the doctor we met with. EVERYONE there was first rate, top notch, the best of the best. I cannot say enough good things about our experience there. They truly are the BEST Cancer Center. I say this not because of our outcome but because of how we were treated. I had to deal with a lot of doctors, and their offices, while helping my Dad out with this and many of them were not so quick to help. Dealing with all the doctors can be a bit intimidating especially when you are trying to coordinate everything from out of state.

Today is the first day of Autumn. Can you believe that? It has been cool here for the past week. I have watched the trees starting to turn. This is the first autumn with the BIG DADDY. For those of you who don't know Big Daddy is my Nikon D40. I fully intend to capture autumn 100% with Big Daddy this year. I'm very excited about it. I have scouted out a few choice places to get some (hopefully) great shots of the beautiful fall colors. You are welcome to follow along here. The following are a few shots I have taken so far, but I promise the BEST is yet to come it's very early in color season here. I hope you enjoy them!

You can view the rest of my photographs here.

Let me just add how great it feels to blog again and how happy I am to post here. I missed all of you and this so much. It makes me feel like I'm on the right path again if for nothing else, my sanity! Ha ha!

WW ~ #26

LIVES RURAL WANTS TO BE URBAN

You can view the rest of my photographs here.
I have this tag line on many of my homepages online. I love the city, just about any city with tall buildings, and tons of people, Philly, NYC it doesn't matter take your choice. It makes me feel alive to be in the city. The above is ONE of the MANY reasons I long to be urban. I spent a good part of Sunday weeding around our house. We have a ton of landscaping in our yard and while it looks beautiful, it is A LOT of work, on almost a daily basis. Give me the city, a condo/townhouse or apartment with NO yard, I'll go the park instead and be very happy. THANKYOUVERYMUCH.

New Feature? You Decide #3

I have been a bit behind but if you have been following you know I am back in full swing now and bringing you today a new edition of You Decide!

You can view all my photographs HERE.

When you look at the photograph above what do you immediately think of? Drop your answers in the comments. The correct ones will be acknowledged right here next week.

Here's last weeks photograph.

Miss Attitude said: "Kind of weird though because it looks like it's inside a bathroom..."

tinyshrimp said: "looks like a public restroom pic"

perpstu said: "It looks like a TV on the ceiling of a bathroom stall."


David O'Donnell said: "Fanciest loo ever—"

Congratulations all four of you were correct!
The above is a shot I took while in the bathroom (I just had to) at ESPNZone in Baltimore Md. While I am not a fan of public restrooms, this one I had to go into because my daughter was in it and came back to our table and said "Mom you just HAVE to go into that bathroom before you leave, you won't believe what they above each stall!"